The National Gallery [antikvár]

FOREWORD By SIR PHILIP HENDY Director (1946-67) THE National Gallery offers a wonderful rangé of pictures, from Margaritone's gilded wooden altar-frontal, with its Madonna enthroned for eternity, to Renoir's Les Parapluies, where a change in the weather causes a little group in the Street to pause an instant. Everyone can find somé kind of picture to enjoy. Yet this very multitude of kinds is rather overwhelming to the newcomer. Even if he is not sure that he can ever come again, he will be wise not to spoil his visit by looking at too much. Better an hour's enjoyment than a whole day's harvest of information. One method of ensuring pleasure is to sit down until somé picture calls you from your seat to examine it more closely. Great pictures may represent the observations of a lifetime; they need time and all our faculties for their appreciation. On the other hand disappointment may result from looking for what is not intended to be there, and the qualities first needed of us may be relaxation and passivity. The most popular painters today are Renoir and his French contemporaries. They painted with zest from nature and have taught us to see her with their eyes; their pictures are still fresh and bright. But every great painter of the past has gone to nature for inspiration, however much more he may have wished to do than merely represent her. All pictures looked fresh once; and the taste for pure, strong colours is nothing new. Unfortunately these facts were often forgottén in the past. More of an obstacle to their recognition than plate-glass were the thick yellow varnishes and even over-paintings often applied to make pictures seem less like nature and to cover as much as possible the signs that they are the work of imperfect man and have acquired further imperfections with time. As Mr. Levey mentions in his lively sketch of National Gallery history, these things are now being gradually remedied by the removal of glass and the restoration of pictures to as much as possible of their originál appearance. His notes on the pictures illustrated will help in their appreciation, and the excellent reproductions will make it possible after a single visit to go on looking at them. Recently, the Gallery has benefited from an increased Purchase Grant and has acquired a number of fine pictures-somé illustrated at the back of this book. Page 1